


tomorrow is another day and you don't have to hide away

by cat (rileyfinns)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Boyd, Alpha Vernon Boyd, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Rewrite, Erica Reyes Lives, F/M, Fix-It, Hale Pack 2.0, Hale-McCall Pack, Pack Dynamics, Pack Feels, SORRY THIS IS SO WEIRD TO TAG!!, Vernon Boyd & Erica Reyes Live, Vernon Boyd Lives, allison also lives but it's literally one sentence at the end, and then a littleeeeee, and then also kind of, but again boyd is the alpha not derek, it's mostly a vague rewrite of erica and boyd surviving in 3a and how that works, it's the members and their specific dynamic but derek isn't the alpha, this is so weird to tag! i am so sorry! it's kind of vaguely an ensemble fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:28:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29363283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rileyfinns/pseuds/cat
Summary: They don’t talk about how this works. Boyd’s are from violence and Scott’s are from virtue, but both of their eyes are red. There’s no tension between him and Scott; maybe it’s because they’re taking to it so differently. Maybe it’s because they’d gotten it so differently.
Relationships: Isaac Lahey & Erica Reyes, Vernon Boyd & Derek Hale & Isaac Lahey & Cora Hale & Erica Reyes, Vernon Boyd & Derek Hale & Isaac Lahey & Erica Reyes, Vernon Boyd & Isaac Lahey & Erica Reyes & Cora Hale, Vernon Boyd & Scott McCall, Vernon Boyd/Erica Reyes, and then minor explorations of the pack dynamics of, slight allison/isaac but like so periphery
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	tomorrow is another day and you don't have to hide away

Death, ironically, heals a lot of wounds. 

They find Erica half-dead, Cora and Boyd half-feral. Erica’s pain is keeping her anchored to her humanity but Cora and Boyd’s begin to shift right in front of them, unable to help it.

Cora, a girl who had been dead for years, yellow-eyed. 

Boyd, smart and quiet and patient, always thinking before he acts, red-eyed. 

When Boyd gets his claws into Scott’s stomach, it takes longer to heal. He sleeps in Derek’s loft to keep from worrying his mom. Erica is in another room, healing. Boyd is in another room, hiding. Cora and Derek are in different rooms, old wounds bleeding. Isaac sleeps on the couch.

The loft is quiet. Sometimes Erica wakes up to Isaac in her bed, but he never talks, always just lies next to her, all curled into himself, like he’s scared to touch her. Erica gets her fingers in his hair until he’s relaxed enough to scoot closer, head on her shoulder and then arm tentatively around her middle, missing the worst of her injuries.

Most of the talking happens between Scott and Erica, both stubborn and wandering around at night despite the pain of it. When even eating midnight snacks hurts, they sit with their bare shoulders touching and quietly take turns trading pain with each other.

::

Erica is still wary of Allison, but Allison keeps her chin so low that Lydia doesn’t raise hers in defense of Allison either, and it gets easier. Things are uncomfortable between Scott and Allison still, but they both keep coming back to the loft, Stiles or Lydia in tow, acting like they aren’t keeping an eye on anything. Like they aren’t waiting to see what Boyd does.

Kali is dead. Deucalion had killed Ennis. Between Scott and Derek, Deucalion is taken care of. And if Peter is good for one thing, it’s indiscriminate murder, so between Deucalion and Peter, the Darach is taken care of, too. Danny knows everything and doesn’t break up with Ethan, so he and Aiden stay in school, and everyone pretends like they don’t know what Lydia does with the latter brother. It’s easier when they don’t talk about it.

Kali is dead because Boyd had killed her. That complicates things.

Boyd won’t tell them what happened. Neither will Erica or Cora. That complicates things, too.

::

Isaac is no longer shy about curling up in Erica’s lap, but Boyd and Cora don’t get close to anyone, and no one gets close to them. Erica holds onto Isaac just as tightly as he holds onto her, his arm always thrown across her front, her hand always in his hair. 

Erica’s parents don’t ask after her. Neither do Boyd’s. They won’t go to school and no one’s sure how to make them. Isaac isn’t going anywhere Erica doesn’t. Between Scott, Stiles, and, surprisingly, Ethan, Danny is convinced to edit their attendance records. Child services getting involved is somehow the worst of their problems. They can fight evil; it’s harder to fight bureaucracy.

Derek sacrifices his alpha spark to save Cora, Scott ascends to True Alpha, and nothing changes around the loft. Sometimes Cora leaves, sometimes for a few days without telling anyone where she’s going, but the other two betas (Boyd’s now?) still won’t. The inside of the loft is almost normal now, some combination of Allison, Scott, Lydia, and Stiles always filtering through. Derek keeps the fridge stocked. He’d never been a good alpha, but he’d always done better with a pack.

They don’t talk about how this works. Boyd’s are from violence and Scott’s are from virtue, but both of their eyes are red. There’s no tension between him and Scott; maybe it’s because they’re taking to it so differently. Maybe it’s because they’d gotten it so differently. But Boyd will sit at the edges of the room, silently watching, whereas Scott is among them, always touching and talking.

::

The loft is busy today. Erica is no one’s enemy anymore, but there’s something distinct about where she stands and where Scott’s pack stands. Isaac is always drifting between two halves, shoulders always tense like he’s aware of it. Like he’s doing something he’s going to get in trouble for.

Derek is in the next room cooking dinner, Cora loudly not helping. They’re having a good day, not quite so hesitant. Isaac is sandwiched in between Erica and Scott, Stiles and Allison squished on his other side, Lydia sitting primly on the arm. The twins aren’t really their enemies anymore, either, but they still aren’t welcome, so this is as full as it gets.

Erica is the first to do it. To talk to Boyd even when he doesn’t answer. She squeezes her way out from between Isaac and the couch, sits right down next to Boyd on the skinny spiral staircase.

Her face is open and vulnerable, unassuming, when she says with a shaky shrug, “I don’t think any different of you, you know.”

Boyd is looking at her like he’s trying very hard to not see her at all.

“She was going to kill me. She would’ve.”

A beat.

“And it isn’t like Cora and I wouldn’t have done it.”

A beat.

“We were all trying to. I went for her first. I  _ wanted  _ to. You were just the one that finished it. And you saved my life, Boyd.”

Boyd is looking at the ground now. 

Erica takes his hand and doesn’t say anything else.

::

It’s a little smoother after that, everyone settling into their places. It’s Derek, of all people, who brings it up. They have a full house again. Derek has bought a bigger table, someone in almost every chair.

Erica is trying to read Stiles’ loveline, Scott looking over Stiles’ shoulder with interest. Allison and Cora are talking about the weirdest bones they’ve broken (Allison broke a bone in her upper arm during gymnastics; Cora broke her fibula while on the run) while Isaac looks on in equal parts horror and appeal. While everyone is distracted, Lydia is texting under the table.

No one listens when Derek clears his throat, so he delicately moves his food onto his napkin, and then wings the plate at the wall. Isaac just about throws himself to the ground, Erica turns around to catch him, while Allison and Lydia glare and Boyd and Scott  _ growl,  _ both of their eyes flashing red. Stiles is mostly confused. Cora rolls her eyes, unaffected.

“Dramatic,” She comments blandly.

“Maybe,” Derek says, wincing as he looks at Isaac, unable to make eye contact with Erica. “I’m sorry. I didn’t, uh.”

“It’s okay,” Isaac says, already sitting up. Erica leaves her hand on his back.

“It’s not,” Scott disagrees, back to normal. 

Boyd says nothing, eyes still red. 

“It’s not,” Derek agrees. “But we still have to talk about this.”

“About what?” Scott asks, eyebrows furrowed. The rest of the room is catching up around him.

“You and Boyd.”

“What about me and Boyd?” He asks, not stupid but still naive enough to miss the point.

“You’re both alphas. We saw how well that worked out for the pack of them.”

“I’m not going to kill my pack. Boyd’s not going to kill his. Nothing has to change.”

“This changes everything, Scott,” Derek says, tired.

“It doesn’t have to.” Everyone looks at Boyd as he speaks up. Silent, strong, and now powerful, too. He commands attention. “We’ve been doing this together. We can keep doing it together. Nothing has to change.”

And so it doesn’t.

::

Melissa has taken a shine to Isaac, and Boyd and Erica are never far behind him, so sometimes they spend nights at Scott’s house. Isaac always eats like he’s starving and Boyd never eats enough and Erica very carefully eats a normal amount, only one plate and never picked clean. Melissa asks pointed questions that she rounds the edges of with her Gentle Mom voice, making sure Derek’s feeding them enough, that he has enough room for all of them, that they have everything they need. She sends them back with leftovers and notes for Derek that only Isaac ever passes along.

::

Allison and Isaac have been gravitating toward each other for a while, but a bubble between them has popped, and now there’s nothing keeping space between them.

Well. There’s Scott. When Scott is there, they keep themselves apart. So Scott shows up less and less, and Stiles drops by to check up on Erica and Cora, and that’s mostly it from there for a while.

Boyd shakes a lot now, goes blank-eyed, and sometimes Stiles will try to look at him out of the corner of his eye. Because it’s different. Boyd had been very, very good at looking unimpressed, and even better at concealing his emotions, but there’s a difference between a slate wiped clean and a slate that had never had anything written on it. Sometimes Boyd looks so empty it’s hard to imagine him being anything but. Stiles will look and Erica will draw his attention back, sometimes subtly, sometimes snapping her fingers and shaking her head. It depends on how tired they are that day.

Derek still keeps his distance, used to isolation, but Cora had grown up with a pack and found another one in South America, and she’s better at it. Just as blunt and harsh, still a Hale, but Boyd will shake and Cora will grab his hand or press herself into his side, hand on the back of his neck, and Erica always follows suit, right up against his other side, curled around his arm or underneath it. When Isaac joins in, sometimes he sits on the floor by Boyd’s feet, and sometimes Erica slides herself into Boyd’s lap and Isaac takes her place next to him. Sometimes when Erica touches him, Boyd touches back, but whenever they all hold him, he just lets them.

Sometimes Scott or Stiles or Allison or Lydia will show up while they’re all tangled up, and at first Derek would ask what he should do, but eventually he just starts turning them away.

::

Isaac has taken to sleeping at Allison’s most nights, so now Erica’s bed is almost always empty, because she spends a lot of nights crawling into Boyd’s, pressing her spine against his chest. 

Today had been a hard day for Boyd, so Erica’s bed is not empty.

It’s the middle of the night when the bed creaks under Boyd’s new weight, and when he reaches for her, she turns around to face him. He pulls her into him anyway, his eyes already shut, Erica’s eyes blown wide at the way their noses are almost touching. Tentatively, Erica closes the distance, pressing the bridge of her nose against the tip of his. 

“I don’t regret it,” he says quietly, because he has to, and Erica ducks her head to press a gentle kiss to the pulse point on his neck and lingers there, a contrast to the way he’d gotten his teeth in Kali’s neck and  _ yanked _ .

“You shouldn’t,” she tells him.

“I would do it again. To save you. Or Isaac, or Cora, or Derek, or — but especially you.”

“I know.”

“I’m probably going to do bad things sometimes. Because Scott won’t. And sometimes someone will have to. A lot of things are going to change.”

“Sure,” she says. “You still want me?”

“Yes,” he answers, an undercurrent of confusion in his voice, and one of his hand squeezes where it’s wrapped around her hip.

“And that’s not changing?”

“No.”

“Then I don’t care,” she says, and she nudges his chin up, and she presses her mouth against his, unhurried. 

They’d kissed before, only a couple of times, once clumsy in the train depot, once desperate in the bank vault, both times because they’d  _ needed  _ it. Both times because they were afraid they were going to die soon and without having done it. Now there was no rush, no reason except because she wants to, and she  _ wants  _ to. She wants to do so much with Boyd.

“I love you,” she tells him when she pulls away to let him catch his breath, because he should know, and because she means it.

She keeps meaning it when a fox spirit steals Stiles’s body and Boyd tells Scott that he’ll put it down if he has to. And she keeps meaning it when Allison is bleeding out in Scott’s arms and Boyd clamps his teeth around her arm. And she keeps meaning it every time he goes from getting along with Stiles to cuffing him on the back of the head when he says something he shouldn’t to Isaac or, later, Liam, and when the Dread Doctors come and he wants to snap Theo’s neck, and when he almost gets himself killed saving Scott from the Beast, and when the Ghost Riders steal her first and he finds her and snaps her out of it, and when the town turns on them and Boyd knocks scared kids on their asses to keep them from getting anyone killed but doesn’t otherwise put his hands on them. 

And she keeps meaning it. And he does, too.


End file.
